The ones we lost: Wilmington-area notables who died in 2022

A historian. An author. A record-setting lung transplant survivor. And the man who helped preserve for future generations one of Wilmington's most cherished gathering spaces.

They're among the notable people from the Wilmington area we lost in 2022.

More: Wilmington-area notables who died in 2021

Susan Taylor Block, writer, historian

Block, who died Oct. 29 at the age of 71, penned several popular volumes about the history of the Wilmington area.

She was best known for a trilogy of photo-heavy books for Charleston, South Carolina's Arcadia Publishing: "Along the Cape Fear" (1998), described as a "miscellany" of local history; "Cape Fear Lost" (1999), which featured architecture and buildings that had been demolished; and "Cape Fear Beaches" (2000), which focused on the area's coastal communities.

Block also provided the text for the sprawling coffee table book and photo anthology "Wilmington Through the Lens of Louis T. Moore" (2001), and in 2007 published "Wilmington Then and Now," which juxtaposed historic photos with contemporary shots in the same locations.

Block was also the official historian of Airlie Gardens, about which she wrote a book ("Airlie: The Garden of Wilmington") and a screenplay (“Beneath the Airlie Oak").

Darryl Lee Bruestle, Wilmington Police Chief

Bruestle, who served as Wilmington police chief from 1975 to 1991, died July 15 at the age of 88. At 16 years, his stint as chief was the longest in the department's history.

A native of Michigan, Bruestle spent 48 years in law enforcement altogether. He's credited with helping to start the Crime Stoppers program in New Hanover County during his tenure, and current Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams told the StarNews in July that Bruestle's support is a big reason that he became a police officer and eventually chief.

Jerry Dove, mayor of Southport

Dove, who served as mayor of the Brunswick County town of Southport from 2015 to 2019, died June 16 at the age of 76.

Prior to serving as mayor, Dove had a long career in public service: with the United States Air Force, with the North Carolina Highway Patrol and with the Southport Police Department as its chief. He was known as "Chief Mayor" during his time leading Southport because of his law enforcement ties.

Dove, who led Southport through a difficult time that included being battered by Hurricane Florence in 2018, was also well-known as a musician who took any opportunity to pick up and play the guitar.

William Friend, entrepreneur

Friend, a native of England who had lived in the Wilmington area for just two years, died July 3 after being struck by lightning on Masonboro Island. He was just 33.

Friend was the chief executive officer of Bisnow, a New-York-based digital media company. But he was probably best known as the husband of Bevin Prince, the Wilmington resident and owner of the Recess cycling studio who rose to fame in the 2000s as a co-star of the Wilmington-shot drama "One Tree Hill."

Friend's death attracted media coverage worldwide.

More: Bevin PrinceOne Tree Hill's Bevin Prince buoyed by Wilmington cycling community after husband's death

Philip Gerard, writer, professor, historian

Gerard, whose 1994 historical novel "Cape Fear Rising," based on the Wilmington coup and massacre of 1898, led to a public reckoning of the racially driven and long-suppressed event, died Nov. 7 at the age of 67.

Gerard was also a co-founder of the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Creative Writing, for which he served as chair for years. As a professor, Gerard was a proponent of the art of "creative nonfiction," a subject he literally wrote the textbook on.

Other novels include "Hatteras Light" (1986) and "The Dark of the Island" (2016), and he also wrote volumes on the outdoors ("Down the Wild Cape Fear") and history. Most recently, Gerard had begun a series about North Carolina history for Durham-based publisher Blair. "North Carolina in the 1940s: The Decade of Transformation" was published this year, and a book about North Carolina in the 1950s is forthcoming.

More: North Carolina historyAuthor and UNCW professor Philip Gerard starts book series on North Carolina history

Howell Graham

Graham was the United States' longest-surviving lung transplant recipient when he died in hospice care Nov. 9. He was 60.

Graham, who moved to Wilmington to attend the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he got a business degree, received a double lung transplant in 1990 to replace organs that had been devastated by cystic fibrosis. Originally given a life expectancy of five years, he lived for more than 30 and became an inspiration to others, particularly those who had also undergone transplant surgery.

In 2011, Graham, who worked as a real estate appraiser and was an avid sailboater, was featured on National Public Radio's StoryCorps segment as part of a conversation with his mother, the writer Nan Graham.

Maurice Martinez, professor, filmmaker, poet

Martinez, a longtime professor in the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Watson College of Education who was also a force on the Port City's cultural scene, died Sept. 12 at the age of 88.

A native of New Orleans, Martinez's mother, Mildred Bernard Martinez, started the first preschool and kindergarten for Black children in Louisiana. Martinez would become immersed in the Crescent City's jazz scene, taking photos of luminaries like John Coltrane in the 1960s and claiming to be the first published writer to call New Orleans "The Big Easy" in print (a claim that's backed up by evidence).

After getting a doctorate in education from the University of Michigan, Martinez moved to Wilmington in the early '90s and taught in UNCW's education department for 19 years, retiring in 2014. In Wilmington he also organized poetry readings and made films, some of which appeared in Wilmington's Cucalorus Film Festival and the North Carolina Black Film Festival.

Dan Morris, actor

Morris, a prolific Wilmington actor who appeared in dozens of plays and musicals locally, died July 30. He was 77.

A native of Cleveland, Morris served in the U.S. Army and spent time in Vietnam before moving to New York City, where he worked in theater for a decade. He was the stage manager of Broadway plays "Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet and "On Golden Pond," as well as many others.

In Wilmington, Morris, who was also an avid sailboater and woodworker, and known for being equally gruff and playfyul, turned his attention to acting. For most of his time in the Port City Morris did plays, starring in the title role of "King Lear" for Cape Fear Shakespeare on the Green," playing Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons" and portraying a brilliant, mentally unbalanced mathematician in "Proof." He also played down-on-his-luck salesman Shelley Levine in "Glengarry Glen Ross" in 2008 for Linda Lavin's Red Barn theater.

Later in his acting career Morris turned his attention to musicals, playing Captain von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" and Professor Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" for Opera House Theatre Co.,

Ian Moseley, restaurateur

Moseley, who was a partner in and opened a dozen or more bars and restaurants in downtown Wilmington, died Oct. 4 at the age of 55. He is credited with helping turn downtown into the drinking and dining destination it is today.

After opening The Wave Hog bar on Dock Street in 1994, Moseley also helped start the original Slice of Life pizzeria (where Fork N Cork is now), the old City Stage/Level 5 rooftop bar and theater, YoSake, The Husk and others.

Most recently, he opened The Ivey cocktail bar at 10 Wilkinson Alley with two partners earlier this year.

Al Pastore, soccer icon

Pastore, a co-owner and co-founder of the Wilmington Hammerheads professional soccer team in the 1990s who also coached New Hanover High School's soccer team to its first state championship appearance in 2008, died Dec. 4 at the age of 75.

Before moving to Wilmington to start the Hammerheads with Bill Rudisill and coaching the team for three seasons, Pastore started the top youth club FC Westchester in New York and was named 1992 youth coach of the year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Pastore also served as an assistant soccer coach at Duke University in the early and mid-2000s.

Tony Rivenbark, actor, preservationist, arts administrator 

Rivenbark, who served as the executive director of Wilmington's Historic Thalian Hall for more than 42 years, died July 18. He was 74.

In 1979 Rivenbark began running Thalian Hall, which was built in 1858, and kept his job until his death. Starting with a major renovation in 1990 that added the Hall's current lobby, box office, studio theater and more, Rivenbark oversaw many other repairs and improvements that increased the usage of the building and turned it into one of Wilmington's most vital arts institutions.

Rivenbark was also an actor, appearing in dozens of local plays and musicals and playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in various productions of "A Christmas Carol" more than a dozen times.

Rivenbark was the author of "Images of America: Thalian Hall," published by Arcadia Press in 2015, and he wrote articles and essays about the building's history for numerous publications.

More: Tony RivenbarkAs Thalian Hall gets new leadership, a look at Tony Rivenbark's legacy and what's next

John C. Symmes, Wilmington Mayor and City Councilman

Symmes, a former mayor of Wilmington and city councilman who served in local government for more than a decade in the 1960s and '70s, died Jan. 8 at the age of 93.

Symmes was an early proponent of development in Wilmington and served as mayor for a year between 1972 and '73 during a time of high racial tensions in the Port City. He served on the Wilmington City Council from 1963-1975.

He later ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in 1980 and lost a bid for mayor in 1981, losing to longtime Wilmington Mayor Ben Halterman.

Symmes was born in 1928 and attended New Hanover High School, where he played quarterback on the football team. He later attended The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

As a medic in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953, he served in the Korean War and was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Medal Badge and the Battle Star. After returning to Wilmington, he worked as an insurance agent and for the City Publishing Co., and was a manager with marketing firm R.L. Polk & Co.

Shawn Wellersdick, chef and restaurateur

Wellersdick, who co-owned and cooked at Wilmington's popular Port Land Grille for more than 20 years, died May 25 at the age of 49. He had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Wellersdick, who co-owned Port Land Grille with his wife, Anne Steketee, was known as one of Wilmington's best chefs. His Wilmington restaurant career started in 1998 when he was part-owner and executive chef at Under Currant downtown, where Caprice Bistro is now.

After a stint in Portland, Oregon, Wellersdick and Steketee returned to Wilmington to start Port Land Grille, which remains one of the longest-running restaurants in the area.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Notables from the Wilmington NC area who died in 2022